Shoulder to Shoulder
by Magus Zanin
Summary: At the battle of Reach, Humanity recives some help, changing the face of the war. Will this new force turn the tide? Or will they prove too much for an already battered human race to handle?
1. Chapter 1

The Pillar of Autumn had just finished off the Covenant carrier and was now viewing the enemy fleet facing of with the human fleet guarding Reach. 216 ships, all of them enemies. They out numbered the humans 2-1 but there was something odd. There were raged holes in the Covenant formation, something the aliens rarely allowed, especially with their precision slip space jumps. Also, there were pieces of white/purple covenant hull plating mixed in with their fleet. As if something had torn into them while they were still inside the alternate realm. Still, that would have to wait as the two sides squared off. Plasma Torpedoes began to charge and MAC guns fired. Fifty six more covenant ships were destroyed in the 30 seconds needed for their weapons to charge, including two of the five carriers.

About ten seconds before they were ready to fire, 63 ships dropped out of slip space, with another 7 appearing INDSIDE the Covenant formation. This smaller group launched what appeared to be over 450 missiles, then jumped again, this time appearing behind the main formation. The main group, comprised of, 40 destroyers, 10 odd looking, hexagon shaped ships and 8 battle ships, launched fighters at the enemy fleet. The tube shaped craft broke apart, layer after layer becoming a swarm of fighter craft, until there was only a single tube left, half of its former size. Over 1000 fighter craft flew at the covenant ships. The missiles hit their targets, the massive explosions ripping enemy vessels apart, with 42 killed or disabled, including 2 of the three carriers, with their fighters still in the hangers. The remaining carrier turned and launched it's fighters at the newcomers, along with 68 of the remaining covenant fleet, over half. The new comers' battleships, looking like an arrowhead with a reverse notch cut out of the tip, giving them a serrated point; flared their bows, white light spewing forth to slam into the ships charging at them, trying to get into range for a torpedo shot. Eight of the enemy ships simply exploded, including the last carrier and four destroyers.

The fighters engaged each other and the covenant strike craft were over whelmed by sheer numbers, being out numbered 6 to one. Another salvo of missiles came from the new ships, this time all of them firing, not just the 7 smaller frigates. Now with in range, the remaining Covenant ships fired their plasma, over 110 bright lights burning through space, 60 going after the new people and fifty attacking the humans. The humans fired one more salvo, destroying another 30 ships, before they moved their repair platforms into place to block the plasma. As Admiral Stanforth knew, when you destroy a covenant ship, the plasma it fired lost cohesion and dissipated in space. Both the Humans and newcomers now took advantage of that fact as they desperately tried to destroy as many ships as possible before the enemy shots hit them.

Only fifty shots remained, 20 aimed at the humans and 30 at the other aliens, as the humans and their allies, for now, destroyed their enemies frantically. But the new guys had two more cards to play. The missiles, now with in range of the covenant, slammed into not the ships targeting them but the ships targeting the humans. The remaining plasma headed at the humans dissipated into bright blue clouds only ten klicks short of their targets. The aliens spread out as much as possible dividing the plasma among their formation, dispersing the damage. Ten beams of light shot from one end of the tubes that had carried the fighters into battle. Each struck a covenant destroyer and obliterated it, reducing the number of shots headed at the aliens by ten. The alien fighters, now in range to fire their missiles did so, destroying 6 more covenant vessels. Fourteen plasma torpedoes still sped toward their targets. Each one hit, and was partially dissipated by the ships shields, only to break through and rip into the armor. When the plasma settled, the Covenant was in shock. The enemy ships were unscathed.

They activated their slip space drives and ran. Only to reappear right on top of the Autumn.

"Cortana! Get us out of here!" Keyes said, his voice slightly strained.

With that, The Autumn jumped, all of its Spartans still on board, towards a destination that would change the face of the galaxy forever.

(AN: This is an idea I have been toying with for a very long time. I have many things in store for the Spartans, Humanity, The Covenant and those New Guys. This should even the odds in Technology between the Humans and the Covenant , for the most part. I've always wondered what would happen if they did not out class humanity by so much. Well, I guess there is only one way to find out. :D As you can see, ALL the Spartans will be going to Halo, not just the Chief. That is mainly so I can keep the main plot as intact as possible, making my life easier. The next update to Naruto the Gunslinger should be next week or maybe the week after. Moving sucks. Have a nice day.)


	2. Chapter 2

"This is the First Karn Expeditionary Fleet. We request to meet and discuss terms for a cease fire. We leave the location, time and details up to you." A voice came over the radio, on the humans' command frequency. It sounded human, with only a trace of an indefinable accent.

Admiral Stanforth told his A.I., Raijin, to open a channel. "In one hour, we will escort a single craft, with 8 people on board, into our hanger. See you soon. Stanforth out."

An hour later, a single enemy craft, escorted by two Longsword fighters, docked in the landing bay of the main Super MAC platform. The shuttle landed with a barely audible 'clang' on the deck. A door opened on the back of the craft and five armored soldiers stepped out. Standing 7 feet tall and carrying rifles about the size of the MA5C, they had no obvious methods of communication, yet they divided the area into fields of fire like professionals. They survived the area from behind matte black visors, the same color as their armor, their heads tracking right, left, right, left. The masks were longer, their heads oddly proportioned for a human, as if they had snouts under the masks, despite their other wise human bodies. The legs were slightly longer but the arms were shorter and slightly thicker. Then a new person stepped down the ramp. He looked about forty years old, his black hair shoulder length and slightly uncombed. His eyes surveyed the area with a cool confidence, as if he ruled all that he saw.

"My name is Vice Admiral Michael Stanforth."

"My name is First Admiral Magus Zanin. Pleased to meet you." The human smiled a small, almost invisible thing.

"You want to discuss a cease fire?"

"Yes. We have no desire to fight you as well as the Covenant. If this agreement goes well, we may consider entering into a more….. profitable arrangement."

"As the ranking officer of the UNSC present, I am authorized to issue a cease fire."

"And are you?"

"Yes. We will however remain at combat alert beta, in case the Covenant return."

"We shall remain at our equivalent, for the same reason." A slight nod came from the otherwise expression less face. "As a gesture of good faith, we would like to present to you data on some armor you may out fit your ships with. A relatively simple and easy amount of work will increase your ships combat survival rate by well over 50 percent."

"And what would this upgrade entail?"

"The Covenant use magnetic fields to manipulate their plasma torpedoes. In order to do this, the plasma must be electrically charged. If you charge your ships armor with the same charge, positive or negative, your ships armor would push away the enemy weapons fire. A few weeks of refit for each of your ships, and you could take two to three plasma torpedoes without being destroyed. The heat build up would eventually bake the crew inside their ship, but it is better than being destroyed out right. It is in fact, the same system we used to take the remaining fourteen torpedoes and remain intact. It will not help against pulse lasers or any other system they have, but it should give you a much needed edge."

"Thank you. Do you have this data here, or do you need to retieve it from your ship?"

Magus reached into a bag, tied onto his hip, his almost medieval looking armor shifting in response to the movement. He removed a small crystal, not unlike the ones that stored UNSC AIs, and placed it gently on the deck. "I wish you an excellent day." With that, he turned and walked back into his shuttle, the alien soldiers following swiftly. The hatch closed and the ship lifted off, moving into the air lock and soon, out side the space station entirely, rapidly returning to it's own fleet. The new comers were hanging just out side of MAC gun range, in a defensive perimeter, one designed to protect against both threats from out side the system and inside. Looks like they only trusted Humanity so far.

(AN: This is a very short chapter and for that, I apologize. I wanted to show off some of the changes I will make to the Humans technology. For the record, I try very hard to do my research. If you find anything that is inconsistent with either Halo canon, or scientific fact, please, let me know in a review. I'm not perfect, and have made mistakes before, both from inaccurate sources and simple errors. I'm not so prideful as to believe I can never be wrong. Also, the same goes for Naruto the Gunslinger. If you find something there that is wrong, please tell me. I will do my best to fix it. Please tell me what you think about the other aspects of this story. If you have any theories about aspects of this story, let me know. I won't always confirm or deny them, but feel free to put them out there, no matter how wild. Good Night and I hope you enjoyed reading this enough to leave a review. {It is almost 3am here, and I have work to do in the morning.}.)


	3. Chapter 3

Several days past while a ship went to Earth to tell them the good news. The same ship came back with over 50 human war ships, including 2 cruisers, to reinforce Reach. They also carried a message from Lord Hood, telling Stanforth to begin negotiations for trading technology and to send someone to find the Pillar of Autumn. This the Admiral acted upon immediately, sending a message to the Karn ships, asking for a meeting. They responded, sending the same shuttle as before. It landed in a different hanger and the entourage was guided to a conference room. 4 humans sat there, at one end of the table. The first, at the head of the table, was Admiral Stanforth. The others were a scientist, an ONI officer and the captain of the station they were on. 6 of the aliens remained out side, guarded by 3 squads of ODSTs, with the other two, Magus and another human, taking seats at the opposite end of the table.

"We would like to formally thank you for helping us win the battle 2 days ago. We would also like to open trade relations and possibly a military alliance between our two peoples. You are the first friendly race of aliens that Humanity has come across."

"We are well aware of humanities history. Possibly more so than you are. I have been authorized to negotiate on behalf of the Karn Dominion. Are you so authorized by the UNSC and whom ever that organization serves?" Magus' voice was formal and had a very precise edge to it. The message was clear. There would be no misunderstanding.

"I am. First we would like to exchange information. What we have to offer each other, that sort of thing."

"That is a good idea. I have a basic count of Karn military strength and some ideas for some technological exchange with me. Do you have similar items?"

"Yes. We would also ask one more thing of you."

"And what would that be."

"At the end of the last battle, there was a ship at the edge of the system that jumped when the remaining enemy ships landed on top of it. It had some very important cargo onboard and we need to find and secure it."

"And you would like us to help you find it?"

"Yes. We are also going to send some of our ships but we would request your assistance in this matter."

"That is acceptable. We would not like to strip Reach of to much defense. However, we could safely send 6 vessels to aid in the search. Do you have any idea of where the ship might be?"

"Yes. Their last known trajectory was headed to an unexplored star. We would like to start there. And expand the search if necessary."

"So be it. When do your ships intend on leaving?."

"Some have already been dispatched from other bases. You may leave when you deem your selves ready. We will provide you with proper IFF codes and chain of command information."

"We do not take orders from you. We will work together in the interest of cooperation, but we are not your subordinates. As long as that remains clear, our peoples will get along very well."

"That is clear."

"Then we dispatch our ships immediately. I will send a six ship task force, under Capitan Storm. It will include a destroyer, 3 frigates, a carrier and a missile corvette. Is that satisfactory?"

"Yes, It is." Stanforth replied, a bit surprised that they complied so easily. He had been ordered do everything in his power to get them to help find the missing Spartans. It was a huge relief to have them do that with out a fight.

"Then our business is adjourned. I propose we meet again, same time tomorrow."

"Good. I look foreword to it." With that, the Karns got up and went back to their ship, the task force to find the Autumn leaving before they had even docked the shuttle.

Stanforth looked over the data on the refitting process. Three cruisers and a carrier were already complete with the modifications for the electric armor system. The remaining cruiser, a carrier and four destroyers would be done tomorrow. And two more destroyers and three frigates the day after. He was very happy the repair yards had not been destroyed. Between them and Reach's own docks, the newly designated 1st fleet would be upgraded within a week. Between the new cooling systems and the new armor design, Even the lowliest frigate was going to be able to take quite a pounding. If they routed all their engine power to the armor, three plasma torpedoes and the ship would still be able to fight. The cruisers would be able to take six or seven and keep on going. Then there was the new Reactive Armor that ONI R&D had cooked up. Between the three systems, the tide might just turn in the Human's favor after all.

The ship situation was even more promising. Two new Orbital guns would be done in the next three days. Combined with the six being towed from Earth, ETA, a week, their defenses were improving drastically. The new MAC rounds, a frangible design like those on the Pillar of Autumn, were already being distributed to the fleet. Each shot from the MAC guns would now be worth 2 of the previous variety. The ship yards of the UNSC were not sitting on their hands either. Another thirty new ships, all with improved MAC guns, the same design on the Autumn, and all the newest defensive technologies, would be off the line in the next two weeks at various planets. Another thirty in the next two. For the first time in thirty years, the older than he looks Admiral felt a glimmer of hope. Then he read the next message. And all that hope went down the drain.

* * *

The six ships dropped out of Slipspace, their formation perfect, all ready scanning the area with passive sensors. "Nothing on this side of the system, Captain Storm. Shall we jump to the other side and look?"

"Yes, Lieutenant." The man in the command chair on the bridge of the Karn ship 'Fire's Wrath' responded. He was tall, around 6'2, and had the brightest red hair any human had ever seen. He also looked red, as if he had a massive sunburn all over his body, that never faded. By far his most striking feature however, was his eyes. Like molten rock they swirled, almost as if he had molten metal in his veins. They almost glowed with heat.

A quick jump later, the scans were not so uneventful. "Forefathers help us." One of the bridge crew muttered. "I have never seen such a fleet." He was right. No one had. Over 500 covenant ships surrounded an object orbiting a gas giant. The sensor operator enhanced the view, zooming in and highlighting the enemy ships. The computer automatically counted them. 563, with over 100 carriers and cruisers, each over 3 kilometers long. Then there was a group of massive ships, right in the center. Three ships, resembling massive cruisers, sat at the center of the group. But as huge as they were, they did not hold a candle to the object they hovered around. At around 10,000 kilometers in width and about 1,000 thick, the ring was bigger than anything anyone had ever seen.

"Zoom in on the inside surface of the ring." The bridge crew, clad in the same armor as the troopers the accompanied the Admiral on the shuttle, complied with the order given by their leader.

As the image came into focus, one of the crew, weapons, thought Storm idly, let out a hiss of surprise. The inside of the ring was a mix of blues and greens, like a planet. As the ring rotated, another thing came into view. A scar, around 100 kilometers wide, with a slightly bulbous section at the end. "Enhance that scar."

Again, the screen complied, zooming in on the out of place feature. The image cleared and a ship was clearly visible, if still far away. "I am sorry sir. The computer can't enhance the image any more without getting closer to the enemy."

"Fine, fine. Run that ship through the computer. Does it match the ship the humans are looking for?"

"Yes sir. 87% probability this is our target."

"Oh, goodie. Plot a jump right in the center of the ring. Arm all weapons. Alert all ground forces. We are going to do a bit of recon. I'm taking the Marauders and Combat Units 1, 3 and 4 onto that ring. After you have expended all your shots in one big salvo, we will use the confusion to take shuttles to the surface. As soon as you are done firing, jump back to Reach. This fleet will probably go there after they are done."

"And what about rescuing you?"

"We will be fine till command sends reinforcements. Just gather a fleet to do a hit and run once you get back. We can't take that group head on. We need to cut it down to size a bit. When every one is ready, initiate jump. This should be fun." A maniac grin was spread across his face as the count down to Slipspace went to zero.

(AN: I hope you enjoyed this. Please let me know if there is anything wrong with this and also what you like about it, if anything. Other than that, have a nice night.)


	4. Chapter 4

A storm of energy erupted in space, right in the middle of the Covenant fleet guarding the Ring. As soon as the storm appeared, the aliens responded, beginning their weapons charge up sequence. Still, it took over thirty seconds to charge a plasma torpedo. And over 20 to charge pulse lasers. That was far too long. The six ship task force landed right in the middle of their formation. They immediately began firing, 500 missiles slamming into the enemy fleet. A few ships were caught with their shields down and were destroyed out right. It might as well have been a pin prick to the sheer size of the group. A few nukes went off, blasting more Covie ships into scrap.

The standard weapons on a Karn warship were rail guns. Similar to the Humans MAC guns in basic concept and even design, the philosophy of using them was quite a bit different. Instead of having one or two main guns, the Karn warships had anywhere from six to 20 smaller guns spread around their hulls. This design did not give them the "Knock Out Punch" of the Human warships. That said, they more than made up for it in sheer rate of fire. Firing over 100 rounds a second in "Full Burst Mode", they could empty their magazines in just under 30 seconds. In "Sustained Mode" They only fired 1 per second, but at 55% the speed of light instead of 30.

The Karns now opened fire with their ships main armament, slamming the xenophobic aliens with hundreds of thousands of 5 kilo kinetic penetrator rounds traveling at 30% of the speed of light. The effect was that each ship had 5 kills just from its main guns alone, except for the corvette, which only had two. The Covenant was not idle cannon fodder however. They fired back with pulse lasers and a few plasma torpedoes. But by the time they managed to down the shields of their foes, The Karns had turned and jump off in the direction of Reach, only suffering minor damage, again with the sole exception of the corvette, which would need a week in the dry dock from a plasma torpedo impact. All told, 20 ships had been destroyed by the blitz with another 30 suffering varying degrees of damage.

The Capitain of the Fire's Pride breathed a sigh of relief as his group made it into slip space. They had succeeded in all three tasks. One, they had trimmed the numbers of the massive fleet. They would undoubtedly recover, but it was 20 more ships that they would never be able to use against the People of the Scales, as the Karns called themselves. The second objective was to sustain as little damage as possible and as the only ship to need more than a few days of repair was their smallest vessel, he could mark it down as a success.

The third and final objective was to cause enough chaos so the Drop Ships that had launched from the carrier with the Commander and his men on board could get to the ring with out being molested in any way. He was very happy that he had full filled his mission. Now the only question was, could they survive the fight on the ground?

With a violent shake of his head, he threw the thought away. Estus could handle himself. He should be more worried about the poor bastards on the ground having to fight him. Estus was one of the most powerful individuals he had ever met. And the Marauders were the best the Karn Ground Command had to offer. The Covies did not stand a chance, even if they outnumbered the Karn and human force a thousand to one.

A few hundred light years away, on a world known to the Humans as Archangel Foxtrot and to the Karns as U1687, standing for unexplored star number 1,687. A Gathering of the Council of the Prophets was taking place, along with a Gathering of The Council of War. They both discussed the same topic, though with slightly different connotations. One group discussed it as a threat to the war against the humans. The other feared it could cause the Covenant to shatter by revealing things they had long sought to hide.

Twelve Elites sat around a U shaped table. A holoprojector sat at the open end of the table. The room was dark so as to see the hologram easier. An Ultra walked out of the shadows and the assembled Fleet Masters quieted their conversations. The only thing they could agree on was that these new comers were not human.

"I agree, Fleet Masters, these new vessels are not of human design. The human ships are blocky and square, with massive numbers off missiles and a massive main gun. These ships appear to rely on primitive but effective projectiles and missiles that we suspect are powered by Anti-Matter. They do not react the same as the human weapons. When our lasers shoot down human missiles, they do not explode. These do." The silver armored Ultra giving the briefing paused to show a clip from the battle of Reach, only three days ago. "They also seem to use some sort of active camouflage on their missiles, making them almost impossible to shoot down after launch."

"Is there no way to break this deception around the projectiles?" One of the Fleet Masters asked.

"We are working on a new sensor program that would allow us a significantly better rate of shooting the cursed things down. But it is a week from completion and another week before all ships are using it." The ultra answered.

"Very well. What of their carriers. I have never seen such a design before."

"Over half the mass of their carriers is nothing but fighters. These craft appear to come in two varieties, one for attacking fighters and another for attacking warships, again making use of anti-matter missiles. These weapons appear to have the same cloaking mechanism the ship based ones have. They use tactics very close to what the human use with their fighter craft. Observe as two Bombers turn so that their escorts may have a clear shot at the Seraphs tailing them." This statement was accompanied by another video. "The bombers have a missile capacity of 10 antimatter warheads each. Each warhead only has a yield of 2 mega tons. It will take four or five to destroy a CCS Cruiser. They also appear to use a turret weapon of the same type on their ships. This is used by the relatively slow bombers to protect themselves from attack."

"And the ships themselves? What kind of weapon can reach as far as an energy projector, with even more destructive force?"

"I do not know. But I do have a theory, if you would indulge me?"

"So be it. Speak,"

"I believe they focus a nuclear explosion down the tube, starting at one end and letting it out of the other. With no gravity or friction in space, the blast would go straight in the intended direction until impact."

"A wise and plausible theory. Go on. What else do you have for us?"

"Their battle ships main gun appears to use plasma, like ours. But it causes the plasma to vibrate in tune with the hull of the target ship. It will riddle the vessel with cracks, rendering it inoperable and venting most of the atmosphere. If the vessel is charging a plasma torpedo, the plasma will lose containment and the ship shall be destroyed out right. Shields offer no defense as they simply start vibrating in the same fashion, increasing the damage."

"And how do we stop it?"

"We have some ideas but………………… This is a difficult method of attack to counter. As of this time, we have no method to defeat it."

"What of this new foes home? Where do the beasts come from?" Another voice asked.

"We do not know. We have never found a race like these on any world the Covenant has explored. Now, the ships main armament makes use of the same principle of the human's weapons. However, they fire a much smaller projectile in much larger quantities. Their shields appear to be the same as ours, though far weaker. Exhibit A is when they launched a surprise attack on the Holy Ring. We badly damage one of their ships. It only took a plasma torpedo and four pulse lasers to bring it down. One of our ships of similar size would have taken approximately 1.5 times the damage before succumbing."

"And what of them taking a plasma round down their gullet and taking no damage?!" This time the voice was slightly higher pitched, a sign of anxiety.

"We detected a strong magnetic field just after impact. This would suggest that they electrically charged their hulls to dissipate our plasma. The magnetic field could not maintain integrity, and thus the projectiles cooled and dispersed before the touched the hull of the enemy."

"This does not bode well for the war with the humans. We must now discus plans and tactics to defeat this new enemy. But first, let us take a short rest. Meet back here in one hour. Dismissed."


	5. Chapter 5

1800 hours Installation 04

Antonio Silva was watching a group of marines haul a Shade turret up a hill on to the alpha base. The base was coming along nicely, with over a dozen shade turrets already in place and a large trench network dug. The Covenant would counter attack soon and they needed to be ready.

Despite the best efforts of the Spartans and ODST's, the ship had been taken down. The Spartans could not be everywhere and the ODST's had had their hands full defending the engines. That said, they had held on until they had revived the entire crew from cryostasis. As much as he hated to admit it, a lot of good men and women would have been killed if the Spartans had not held the covenant away from the cryo bays. He had around 1700 Marines and ODST's currently in the base. Another one hundred were spread around in an early warning Network. He also had 16 Spartans, divided into four teams of four. They were effectively his reserve. The remaining 17 Spartans were in the middle of busting Keyes out of his cell in the covenant warship. They had taken three of his seven Pelicans and a squad of marines.

"Sir, we have confirmed sightings of Covie armor incoming from up spin!"

"ETA?" Silva snapped.

"Ten minutes, sir. 10 Wraiths and over 40 ghosts. Looks like two battalions behind 'em."

Another marine said "We've got a flight of ten banshees approaching from down spin. Another 2 battalions of infantry behind them. ETA 10 minutes."

"This is Sigma 4. We have three battalions of infantry and 10 ghosts coming from the right. ETA 5 minutes." Since Sierra was now the name for Spartans while using radio coms, Sigma was the call sign for sniper units even though the word was not part of the phonic alphabet.

"All right. All Sigma teams, open fire at the one minute mark. Target the ghosts. Rocket teams, move to ambush those wraiths. Concentrate your fire on four of them, then get back here. Wake up the men that are sleeping, get em into the trenches. Take their four ghosts that we captured, and delay that infantry from the right. I want the last three turrets in the base in the next five minutes."

"Right sir."

"Spartan Blue, Grey and Red Teams, move to engage the infantry and banshees from down spin. Don't bite of more than you can chew."

"Acknowledged." Came the emotionless voices of the Spartans. Now there was nothing he could do but wait.

Several minutes past while the Humans and Covie forces moved into their positions. The surprise ambushes worked, destroying four Wraiths and nineteen Ghosts. Along with almost a battalion of infantry, mostly Grunts and Jackals. But that left 4 battalions, plus anything that they did not know about. And he had no vehicles to fight the Wraiths and Ghosts with. This was going to be a tough battle.

"This is Spartan Blue Team Leader. We have eliminated approximately 900 enemy infantry and all the Banshees. Requesting permission to disengage and set up another ambush."

"Granted. Good Luck." Well, that group was not going to get here at least, thought Lt. McKay.

This was going to get ugly very fast. The 3 companies he had sent out to ambush the advancing enemies were now back in the base and the Spartans were less than a minute out. On the bright side, they had blasted another three Wraiths and eight Ghosts and wiped out around two thousand Grunts and Jackals. The force approaching from the right had been trimmed down to a two battalions with no armor. And the one from downspin had been wiped out by the combined might of the twelve Spartans.

Still, they were outnumbered 3-1 and those Elites were tough. Silva had seen them on other planets but never in such large numbers. They were now everywhere it seemed. It took an entire magazine from an MA5B to kill them and they were much stronger than a human.

"The turrets are in place and the Spartans are back. Orders sir?"

"Bravo Company of my ODSTs will be our reserve. Sigma teams, target the Elites and Ghosts. Everyone else, engage enemy forces at optimum range." Silva responded. "What is the status of the teams going to retrieve the Captain?"

"They have located him and are en route to the ship's brig now. ETA five minutes."

"Understood. Everybody sit tight and keep your head on straight. We are gonna kick their ass. Oorah!"

1805 Covenant CCS Battle Cruiser Truth and Reconciliation

John was running through the ship, one of his teams following him and the other guarding the exit. They controlled the hanger with one team and the third was running interference, keeping some of the covenant reinforcements away from the extraction team. Still, the number of enemies was not exactly small and the high number of Elites was giving them some trouble. Cortana had a lock on Keyes's position, and almost 30 Marines were with him.

The door opened and the four Spartans moved in to the room. There was a raised platform in the center with two Elites walking around on it, apparently monitoring the holographic displays. Various Grunts and a few Jackals walked around the room. Two Grunts and a Jackal died silently before one of the Elites spotted them. The 8 foot tall alien roared, then one of the Spartans sent a plasma grenade sailing through the air to hit the Split-Lip in the chest. The grenade went off, killing the unfortunate Elite and causing the other one's shields to flare. Gold Two slammed a Grunt in the face with his rifle, killing it, then spun around to his right and put six rounds in another's head. Gold Three and Four hosed the remaining Elite, finishing him.

John put two shots from his pistol into a Grunt about to throw a plasma grenade. Tracking left, he shot two more and then threw a frag grenade through a door that just opened. Two Jackals came flying through the open door, with a couple of Elites right behind them, these on their feet instead of dead on the ground. They fell to precise bursts of assault rifle fire, and the Grunts behind them did the same.

The Spartans ran down the corridor and into the next room. After dealing with the few enemies present in the room, John moved to the next door. "The Captain should be in the next room. There are several other contacts, probably Elites. They are waiting for you, Chief."

"I know Cortana. But we have no choice. Team, prepare for breach."


	6. Chapter 6

"Gold Leader to Silver Leader, go to these coordinates. When you are in position, wait ten seconds then breach."

"Acknowledged. Moving to position."

If the Covenant expected them to simply charge through that door to their deaths, they had another thing coming.

Karn Interplanetary Combat Ship "Blood of Ice" 0100 Hours

The conference room was empty except for Admiral Zanin and the comms technician. As soon as the technician was done setting up the connection, he left the room. Holoprojectors lit up on the ceiling, projecting the images of Karns, six in robes, and eight in military uniform. The shirt and pants of the military uniforms were colored brown, with a red, blue, white or gold stripe down the chest. White was Fleet Warfare, Red was Ground Warfare, Blue was Logistics and supply and Gold belonged to Special Ops. The fifteenth councilor was the tie breaking voter. Each color had two representatives, one for the offensive forces and one for the defective forces. Both held equal power, with the offensive forces viewing the defensive group as protecting their backs rather than reserves of subpar quality. Each one of these men and women was elected by a vote of the people under their command. Fleet personnel voted for the fleet and Logistics voted for Logistics.

The civilian councilors were elected by civilians, with each of them having responsibility for medical, economic, transportation, manufacturing, scientific and civil matters, including police work and maintaining communications networks. Each had an insignia on their robes corresponding to their department. The entire council handled diplomacy.

"Admiral, is the alliance secure?" The economic head asked. Straight to the point was the Karn way.

"As secure as we can hope for." Magus answered.

"Will the humans betray us?" This was asked by the Special Ops Offense commander.

"While we may have to watch our backs in a few years, they will not dare start another war right now. To do so would be suicide. Also, Humanity has always had the ability to set aside their differences to work together against a common foe. I believe that they will extend that to us, at least temporarily." The admiral sighed. "One way or the other, we need to maintain this as long as possible."

"Agreed. You have led us for a long time, Admiral. Through more than one dark time. Your judgment has rarely been wrong. And when it has been, it was not your fault. What of your companion?"

"His fleet has returned and is under repair. He is on the ring world with the ground element under his command. He will see to it that these Spartans are alive and safe."

"Now, how will we deal with the fleet around the ring? Better to hit it before it hits one of our worlds. Or one of the human's worlds for that matter." The fleet offensive councilor asked.

"I will ask the humans what they want to do. In the mean time, how many reinforcements will we have? The Covenant will be back to take this world. I doubt we can hold the line again."

"How important is this world to our allies? How committed are they to defending it?"

The Manufacturing councilor held his hand up, clawed fingers displayed for all to see. "I can answer that. They have almost a quarter of their ship building capacity in this system. Reach also has large amounts of the materials necessary to create Titanium A armor. If they lose this system, it will be a massive blow. Our destruction of the enemy fleet has slowed the advance but not enough. In order to give the human's some room, we must push them back even further."

"Your area is not military matters. We are…"

The previous councilor cut him off. "You don't understand. The Human lines are on the brink of collapse. If we do not give them some time to rebuild, they will not be worth much in the days to come. They have less than a thousand ships left. Their ground forces are already down to less than ten million men, with less than a million projected to come in the next three months. With two hundred planets to defend, that is simply not enough. They need to catch their breath for at least two months."

Magus stood. "I agree. We need to smash at least one of their fleets and a couple of their ship yards. Make them fall back. Force them to defend and rebuild for at least a couple weeks, preferable a month. Then, when they go on the offensive again, lure them into a trap. Blast another one of their fleets and retake the initiative. Even with the humans helping us, we can't match them in a battle of attrition. They have an advantage in logistics and manpower. We need to buy some time."

"Well spoken and correct, Admiral. I will begin searching for their shipyards." Special Ops stated.

Fleet Defense then asked "With the permission of the council, I will begin planning several ambushes. We must plan several traps and begin to trim our enemies' numbers."

"Agreed." With that, the defensive members winked out to discuss their plans.

"I will coordinate the fleet's actions and send some reinforcements to you. In the mean time, stay there and defend that planet."

"Yes Sir. ETAA on reinforcements?" Magus asked

"Three to Four Days and a full battle group. Dismissed."

With a bow, Magus pressed a button on the table. His image on the other end winked out and he got up and went back to the bridge. He had to speak to Admiral Stanforth.

Installation 04 1830 hours

"Captain Storm! We have dug into the area and are ready to move to the humans aid."

"Right, I want us to intercept the second wave of Covenant. Drop Scouts here and here. Marauders along this line, APCs to charge along this axis. The Scouts need to hit these two formations and disrupt them while the APCs encircle. We will take the remaining platoons of Marauders and Scouts and break the circle around that cruiser. We can't have the Spartans trapped in there. Major Ormal will command the defense of the human Alpha site. I will take the rescue of the Spartans. Fare Well and Move Out."

The circle of officers broke, some going to the drop ships and some going to their APC's. The battle was about to begin in full.


	7. Chapter 7

Installation 04 1840 hours

"LT! We've got two ghosts coming in fast!" Private Nacomi said into her headset.

"Let em fall into the trench Private." Lieutenant Santiago replied. As soon at the two ghosts had fallen into the concealed earth work, the platoon of marines came out and shredded the two Elite drivers with a hail of assault rifle fire. Always ready to take advantage of an enemy vehicle, two eager marines jumped the six feet into the trench, rolling to absorb the impact, and hopped onto the two vehicles. Activating their engines, they then wrapped a couple of ropes around the relatively light vehicles and the rest of the platoon dragged them back out of the elongated hole. They were promptly turned on their former owners. It hardly seemed to make a difference. After several minutes of fighting, the ghosts were destroyed and one of the men was killed. Still, they managed to kill over two hundred of the enemy. It was less than a tenth of what they were facing.

Installation 04 1842 hours

The Master Chief hit the door like a battering ram, the heavy purple alloy bending inward with a screech. The next Spartan in line hit it right after John moved out of his way, warping it further. But really, if they wanted to get in, they would have used a plasma grenade to disable the lock, or a breaching charge to blow the door open. This was all a diversion to make the aliens inside the room think that this was their primary way in. In fact, it was. But they would only enter after Silver team hit them from the roof, dropping in behind the enemy and flanking them. The light for Silver leader blinked on his HUD, indicating ten seconds till breach. The Chief tagged the door with a breaching charge right above the lock, and then he kicked the door twice in rapid succession, the already punished metal groaning in protest. At three seconds, he hit the activation signal, detonating the breaching charge. It went in two stages, the first being a Thermite based charge to soften the alloy, then an explosive one to blast it inward. The same thing was happening on the level above in two separate places.

Three smoke grenades went into the room, forming a blinding curtain. But the Spartans had thermal vision in their helmets, the Elites did not. Six plasmas grenades flew through the air, one killing two Grunts, the others killing four of the ten Sangheili in the room. The Jackels shields marked them clearly as targets and they fell quickly, while the Grunts ran around screaming. One of the Elites got wise to the tactic and activated his energy sword. He turned and charged at the door, his powerful legs pounding the deck and propelling him forward at an astonishing speed.

Then he tripped. There was nothing for him to trip on. The floor was smooth, with no bodies in his way or blocking his path. No gun fire or grenade hit him. He simply fell over, mid run. In the slow motion of Spartan time it almost looked comical. John was not about to discount his good fortune, quickly cutting the prone Ultra down before he could get back up. In seconds, the firefight was over. "Silver team, return to your previous task. We will escort the prisoners back to the hanger bay." Two flashes, followed by a longer flash and Silver team were gone.

One of his team mates pressed the button to release the prisoners. Keys walked out of his cell and into the room. "Coming here was reckless. You two know better than this. Thanks." John's respect for the man raised itself a few notches then. Reprimanding him for taking the risk but thanking him for saving the Captains life. Recognizing that duty said not to risk it, but that loyalty came before that. Not to mention having the balls to reprimand a 1000 pound, faceless killing machine after said machine busted you out of jail.

"Are you sure you can find your way out of here? This ship is like a maze."

"It should not be too difficult. Just follow the bodies." One of the other Marines in the room snorted in amusement before grabbing a plasma rifle off the ground.

"While the Covenant had us locked up in here, I heard the talking about this ring world and it's capabilities. They call it Halo."

"One moment sir, accessing the Covenant battle net. Interesting, I've intercepted numerous messages referring to a search team looking for a control room. I thought it was the bridge of a cruiser I damaged in the battle. But they must be looking for Halo's control room."

"Then you two need to find it first. After we get out of here of course. Move out, Marines! Chief, take point."

Installation 04 1900 hours

Drop ships were coming in with a steady trickle of reinforcements from other parts of the ring. It was worrying to Major Silva that the Covies had not hit them again. They had fallen back, something they never did. And according to the Spartans, who he trusted about as far as he could throw them, there were massive piles of enemy corpses and evidence of armored, tracked vehicles killing them. The Covenant did not use tracks, they used anti gravity. Nor did it make sense for them to kill their own people. That implied a third force. Whoever this third force was, they obviously did not want the Humans knowing about them. They either had no dead from those battles or had taken their dead with them. Either way, they were organized, a serious force to be reckoned with. According to the Spartans, the pattern of battle said that at least a regiment size force had done the work. Possibly a larger force. And they had air support.

He had enough problems planning for the assault on the Autumn's crash site. Finding this mysterious force would have to wait till after that. He just hoped they did not find him first. Little did he know, preparations were already underway for the next stage of the Estus' plan.

_**(AN: I hope you enjoyed this. I'm hoping to have the next chapter of Naruto the Gunslinger out next week. Please Review!)**_


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